Felipe Massa brings unexpected points to Williams at Spa
After the major disappointment in qualifying, the Williams drivers concluded a perfect race that allowed them to score points, which will be valuable at the end of the season.
Far from an opportunity to score points, Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll were 16th and 15th on the starting grid, respectively. The drivers benefitted from the safety car, putting on the ultra-soft tires at the end of the race, which allowed them to have a very good pace.
8th at the checkered flag, Massa comes back from afar after his absence during the race in Hungary and following his off-track excursion in FP1 which deprived him of the second practice session « I’m happy with today’s race, it feels like a victory.
A good start, good overtakes and the pace was good while we were struggling yesterday. I am very happy with the result, but also to have been able to keep the other cars behind at the end of the race.
In front of his teammate at the start who later overtook him, Lance Stroll didn’t have the same fortune and finishes 11th at the door of the points. « Without a doubt, it was better than yesterday, but we missed the points and that’s a shame. We benefited from the retirements, but today the car was much better. Unfortunately, I damaged the car passing Magnussen on the restart, I lost a piece of the front wing. Without that, I would have been able to catch Sainz for the point of the tenth place. »
Paddy Lowe, technical director of the Grove team, is satisfied with the turn of events at the end of the Belgian weekend. Congratulations to Felipe for his race and the four points; it’s great that he can come back on a challenging circuit and achieve a good result for the team. With Lance, we missed one or two opportunities, so it’s not a perfect race. He brought the car back by finishing just outside the points, which is still something he can take credit for.
